Roche Percee to Get Primitive Campground

July 2, 2010 by Justin Leighty
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More than a dozen sites at the Roche Percee campground in southeast Saskatchewan could be ready for use in mid-July.

Mary Rose Boyer, the chairperson of Southeast Saskatchewan Tours and Trails – the organization that has been granted a one-year lease on the campground by the provincial government – said a lot of work has been taking place to prepare the campground.

A park management board is being formed, and they will decide when the campground is ready for camping, according to Lifestyle Publications, Estevan, Saskatchewan.

There are about 14 sites near Highway 39 that could be ready this year. They’re non-electric sites, so they wouldn’t be suitable for RVs. But they’d be ideal for tents, or basic “wilderness camping,” Boyer said.

Campers would also have to bring their own outdoor cooking equipment. The sites won’t have fire pits or barbecues, and the campground won’t have washrooms.

Twenty more sites, which used to have electricity, are located close to the Taylorton bridge and the Taylorton Cemetery. Those sites are long-term projects, Boyer said.

“Our vision for this park is that it would be for overnight camping, or for picnics,” Boyer said. “It’s not a site where people can park their RV, or rent a site for a month. It would just be for two or three nights, possibly.”

The campground would be open year-round, so that it could be used for cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing and other activities in the winter.

Another component of their long-term plans is an interpretive center, where the history of the Roche Percee Valley could be told.

“It would be dedicated to the types of information that Tours and Trails have gathered over the years, the stuff that was researched by Roy (Tours and Trails co-founder Roy Sanderson, who passed away in 2009), and other people on the committee,” said Boyer.

The interpretive center has already received a substantial donation, Boyer said.

The First Nations University has expressed an interest in having cultural activities for their students at the campground.

The campground was decommissioned in 1981, Boyer said.

Attendance for the work bees has been good, she said, with 15 to 30 people attending each session. People have been doing what they can to help prepare the campsites, such as removing and burning dead trees and brush

A local paving company has offered to repair the road inside the campground and leading up to the campground, Boyer said. Both roads have broken pavement.